Toronto After Dark Summer Screenings (Juan of the Dead, The Pact, Detention, and V/H/S)

Photo Credit: http://www.torontoafterdark.com

Toronto After Dark Website and Tickets

Fans of the weird and horrifying rejoice – Toronto After Dark has announced two days of special summer screenings to take place on June 27th and July 11th in Toronto at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema. For festival junkies in Toronto the summer can seem interminable, but this injection of horror should do a lot to alleviate those annoying pleasant dreams some of us have been having.

Each night will consist of two films, but we would really recommend checking all four films out as many of them have been tearing up the festival circuit and should be sure to impress casual and dedicated horror fans alike. Below are some brief details about each individual summer screening.

JUAN OF THE DEAD (Wed, June 27 @ 7pm)

This over-the-top Cuban zombie flick was on my radar for TIFF, and despite the fact that I was one of the first to get through the online ticket ordering hell, I was unable to secure a spot. Since its screening at TIFF, everyone who loves zombies has been talking about Juan of the Dead. It’s smart, it’s silly, and of course it’s bloody as hell.

Much more of a fun film than a scary one, it’s a great way to start off the night before The Pact. If you are even a casual fan of zombies, you owe it to yourself to get out for Juan of the Dead.

THE PACT (Wed, June 27 @ 9:45pm)

The Pact is a creepy haunted house film that really isn’t your typical creepy haunted house film. A great lead performance by Caity Lotz and some impressive photography from Bridger Nielson are reason enough to check it out, but some of the twists and turns throughout the narrative should cement this one as a memorable night at the movies.

By the way, that is in fact Casper Van Dien with the flashlight in the picture above – stirring up fond memories of Starship Troopers. Would you like to know more?

DETENTION (Wed, July 11 @ 7pm)

Detention is the film that I probably know the least about in the TAD Summer Screening line-up. Detention looks to be a horror/comedy starring Josh Hutcherson (The Hunger Games) about a serial killer and a bunch of teenagers. This is essentially modern horror’s backbone recipe, so it should be entertaining for genre fans. However, you’ll have to check out the screening for yourself to see if Detention turns out to be something special.

V/H/S (Wed, July 11 @ 9:45pm)

V/H/S is the screening that I’m most excited about. Never before have I seen such a remarkable group of collaborating directors and writers: David Bruckner, Ti West, Adam Wingard, Joe Swanberg, and Simon Barrett, amongst many others. Wingard and Barrett most recently wowed Midnight Madness audiences at TIFF with the scares and laughs found in You’re Next. The fact that they are just a PART of the V/H/S team with other intriguing names makes this one a MUST SEE.

Just ask audiences from Sundance, if they were conscious after the scares that is.

Get your tickets for any of the above screenings at Toronto After Dark, or buy a pass if you want to see them all! Entertainment Maven will be there, will you?

Brave Review (Nadia Sandhu)

Brave (2012)

Starring (voices) – Kelly Macdonald, Billy Connolly, Emma Thompson, Julie Walters, Robbie Coltrane, and Craig Ferguson

Directed by Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman, and Steve Purcell

Brave is a big surprise.  The Pixar produced and Disney distributed film is a story about mothers and daughters.  There is no handsome Prince, but there is a Princess, a Queen, magic and a pesky witch.  Oh and some bears.

Pixar films are technically wondrous but can lack the warmth of the animated Disney Classics. With Brave they have finally broken that barrier. The film delivers a personal story and not, as the trailers seemed to suggest, Braveheart with a warrior princess.

Our protagonist Princess Merida boasts an intricately animated mane that would make Rapunzel jealous.  Merida is a tomboy and a rebel and doesn’t show any signs of wanting to grow up.  While her father King Fergus indulges her, mother Queen Elinor tries to teach her responsibility and constantly admonishes her to be a lady.  Tensions ensue, particularly when Merida is faced with having to do her royal duty and keep the kingdom together.

The plot twists into unexpected territory here – for good and bad depending on one’s personal tastes, but it is refreshing nonetheless.  Too many modern heroines are all “girl power” and not much else.  Merida is a far better realized character, growing and maturing before our very eyes, and this is probably why the ending strikes such a false note.  One suspects the resolution is more a result of pandering to modern tastes rather than organic growth in the characters.

Nevertheless, credit goes to the script which truly captures the incredible complexity and tensions that characterize the mother-daughter dynamic, however fantastical the yarn gets.  Brave sticks to a far more timeless storytelling style than most animated features today, with the now staple contemporary wise cracking of  supporting characters kept to a minimum, and thankfully so.  Not only do these jokes strike discordant notes that pull viewers out of the story,  they ultimately serve to date these films far before their time.

It will be particularly interesting to see how the film is received and reviewed internationally.  Set in Medieval Scotland and clearly created with Western sensibilities in mind, the film has nonetheless harnessed some universal themes.  I am South Asian, and the tensions between familial duty and individual desire resonated particularly well.  I swear I’ve had the same confrontations with my own Mother.

Is the story for everyone?  No.  The second half falls apart a little for anyone that doesn’t care for (wo)man vs. beast, but ultimately this is an emotionally authentic film and worth a visit to the local cineplex.

Take your Moms.

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Alps Review (Kirk Haviland)

Alps (Alpeis)

Starring Aggeliki Papoulia, Ariane Lebed, Aris Servetalis, Johnny Vekris and Stavros Psyllakis

Written by Efthymis Filippou and Giorgos Lanthimos

Directed by Giorgos Lanthimos

Director Giorgos Lanthimos smashed onto the scene in 2009 with the Venice Film Festival award winning Dogtooth. Lanthimos returns with another surrealist dark comedy with Alps, which starts its engagement at TIFF’s Bell Lightbox this Friday June 22nd.

Alps is the story of four people who start a business venture where they take on the mannerisms and dialogue of the recently deceased in order to help people cope with loss of their loved ones. Consisting of a gymnast, her coach, a paramedic, and a nurse, the four dub themselves Alps because in their leader Mount Blanc’s opinion the Alps can never be mistaken for any other mountain range, but they are big enough to fill the space of any other mountain range. The four have a set of rules that they must adhere to in order to maintain trust within the murky situations that occur in the course of running the business. It’s with these parameters intact that we see the Nurse (Papoulia) become entwined with the family of a coma patient who decide to use her services outside of the group dynamic. She also has an elderly father at home to take care of, flipping roles between daughter and wife, that plays with her sanity as she is almost constantly in one character or another. We follow her descent down as the other Alps find out what is going on and the line between character and real life blur even further.

Having not seen Dogtooth I was not very familiar with Lanthimos’ work, of course I had heard the buzz and had an idea what that film was about, as it has racked up the accolades, however I had no idea of the tone or pacing I would be facing in Alps. Unfortunately, the pacing is very slow and deliberate and the comedy is very dry. Alps is essentially a character piece without any character development as even Papoulia’s character barely develops beyond one-dimensional. Papoulia’s performance is quite believable though, despite the lack of development. Her talent on display here is the real reason you stay with the film and don’t quit early. The rest of the group has its moments to shine and in most sequences they deliver. The painfully methodical pacing means you’ll need to be prepared for this film when entering; this is not the film you watch when tired, as it will challenge you to stay with it throughout the film.

Undoubtedly there will be many who support this film as genius minimalist filmmaking, and I’m sure they will have valid reasons behind their arguments, but the pacing and lack of character development do not work enough for me. I will give Alps the mildest of recommends because of the performances on the screen, but know that you will have to work to keep up, or should I say down, with the pacing of it all.

Till Next Time,

Movie Junkie TO

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New to Blu: The Color of Money Review (Dave Voigt)

The Color of Money (1986)

Starring Paul Newman, Tom Cruise, and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio

Directed by Martin Scorsese

Trailer

Just because it is new on Blu-Ray doesn’t necessarily mean it is a new movie.  Celebrating its 25th anniversary and now out on Blu-Ray courtesy of our friends at Touchstone Home Entertainment for the very first time is the classic Martin Scorsese film about the art of the hustle, where a film legend reprises one his iconic roles.  It’s time to learn The Color of Money.

Paul Newman revisiting his role from “The Hustler” as Fast Eddie Felson. In The Color of Money Eddie forms a profitable alliance with the flashy and talented young pool shark Vince (Cruise).  As Eddie takes Vince under his wing and shows him the ropes, Vince’s brash attitude and arrogance begin to cost Eddie more than a just a few matches and all that leads to an ultimate showdown where both men leave it all on the felt.

As a part of an underrated and often forgotten period in the 1980’s, Martin Scorsese’s The Color of Money often gets overlooked in the grand scheme of things in his overall canon of films but it is a damn fine character drama that works from minute one.  Scorsese knows how to light and frame a grungy pool hall, possibly better than anyone and the screenplay by Richard Price adapted from the novel from Walter Tevis crackles with tension, wit, and intelligence.  As we track the journey of Fast Eddie back to the top and his ultimate journey of redemption, we connect to the character and we connect to the man, as every individual person on screen is made real and tangible, thanks to the crisp writing, stellar direction with phenomenal use of music that is common in most Scorsese films, along with strong performances from every major player involved.

In his only Academy Award winning performance, Paul Newman revisited Fast Eddie Felson and made him real, as a man content in his retirement from competition only to get lured out of it by a young prodigy that reminds him of his younger days, the character finally gets to complete his journey by learning how to truly win.  Newman takes us on all the highs and lows that the character goes on towards his redemption in a masterful performance.  Coming off the success of Top Gun, a young Tom Cruise was firmly installed as a leading man, and his performance as hot shot pool hustler Vincent Lauria was one of the first memorable performances in his career and Cruise in working with Scorsese showed the talent and the charm that has propelled him all of these years.  In one of her first leading roles, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio was also nominated for an Oscar as the street savvy Carmen who was hitching herself to Vincent not only to use him but to save herself from a life she knew she didn’t want.  All three performances made this an emotional powerhouse of a film as we were connected and invested in each of their fates as the story ultimately unfolded.

There are sadly no extras on this Blu-Ray release, but it was an excellent digital restoration that gives the film a new level of vibrancy as the sound is immaculate and every dingy dark colour in every pool hall has been restored to its true meaning and this is undoubtedly the closest we will get to seeing it like theatre audiences did.

Ultimately, The Color of Money isn’t a movie that will get mentioned in the same breath as some of the more attractive or more recent Scorsese classics, but it really should be because as you look over the course of his career as a storyteller, the decade of the 80’s is where Scorsese really hit his stride.

The Color of Money is now available on Blu-Ray at video stores all across Toronto as well as at all major retailers for purchase.

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NXNE 2012 – My Father and the Man in Black Review (Kirk Haviland)

NXNE 2102

My Father and the Man in Black

Starring Saul Holiff, Jonathan Holiff and Johnny Cash

Written and Directed by Jonathan Holiff

With the plethora of Johnny Cash documentaries and the biopic “Walk the Line” you would wonder if we really need another look at this music icon on film. But My Father and the Man in Black sets itself apart because it’s NOT a film about Johnny Cash but a film about Saul Holiff, Johnny Cash’s long-time manager, the director Jonathan Hollif’s estranged father who he had not talked to for the last 20 years of Saul’s life, leading up to his suicide in 2005. What we get, in the words of the director, is essentially a slickly produced home movie about the father he barely knew and the life he led that his sons knew next to nothing about.

We start with a re-enactment of Saul’s suicide with the help of some pills and a garbage bag. We then are introduced to our Director/Narrator Jonathan Holiff as he packs up his company and moves back to his parent’s place in Nanaimo, British Columbia. After dealing with constant calls from Johnny Cash fanatics looking for memorabilia and journalists looking for a story, Jonathan’s mother reveals that Saul has held a storage locker for over 30 years and there may be answers to everyone’s questions within. After multiple failed attempts to open the locker, gathering the emotional impact in check, Jonathan opens the locker to reveal stacks and stacks of filing boxes with paperwork, files, gold records and other memorabilia. But the most important discoveries are the boxes of tapes that represent Saul’s audio diary that goes through his entire life in Saul’s own words. We are introduced to Saul from his early producer days after serving in World War 2 in both Los Angeles and back in his native London, Ontario. It’s through his concert productions back in London, that he put together, that Saul first met the man who would impact the rest of his life, professionally and personally, Johnny Cash. The Cash that we get here is shown warts and all, just like Saul. Jonathan does not pull back in any way on either man. The film follows the ups and downs of Cash and Saul’s tumultuous relationship with all the drugs issues and missed performances in which Saul would always have to cover up for Cash. Meanwhile at home we see Saul treat his wife and children like his talent, barking out orders and constantly demanding more while tearing a strip off Jonathan on a constant daily basis. Ultimately Saul ends up quitting and walking away as Cash ignores his advice about the direction his career should be going in. Decades later the men reconcile over the phone, but they never saw each other again. Jonathan comes to some different conclusions about who his father was by the end of the film.

One of the finest documentaries I’ve seen this year, My Father and the Man in Black delivers both a powerfully impactful family story and a rarely seen side of Cash’s story. Much like this year’s also brilliant Marley, we are treated, in every sense of that word, to a lot of never before seen documents and footage from the touring days of Cash, most seen from the unique view of Saul. Director Jonathan Holiff uses many techniques to tell the story: aside from the aforementioned re-enactments in which his younger brother Joshua plays their father he also uses animated photographs, slick editing and vocal recordings to guide the film along. What we end up with is both an important historical document and a riveting family story.

My Father and the Man in Black is just starting out on its journey as NXNE marked its Canadian Premiere and it’s only been shown a handful of times before. This one should be a staple of the festival circuit for the rest of the year and it’s definitely something everyone should keep an eye out for. My Father and the Man in Black is a strong recommend and with the massive amount of extra footage planned for the Blu-Ray/DVD release it’s going to be a must buy when released.

Till Next Time,

Movie Junkie TO

Make sure to keep up with what’s going on at Entertainment Maven by liking our Facebook page and having updates delivered right to your Facebook News Feed. It’s the only way to stay on top of all of our articles with the newest blockbusters and all the upcoming films and festivals in Toronto.

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